


Intimacy

by Nebulad



Series: Sataareth [6]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Injury, Other, [discussing past injury], aro-spectrum Bull
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 19:44:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9287096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nebulad/pseuds/Nebulad
Summary: “What, you wanna see me without the patch on?” he asked.“Would it bother you?” She still wasn’t looking at him, but tracing patterns on his ankle lightly with her finger. He leaned back against the headboard, giving it a bit of a think because… well, no one really requestedpatch-off.It’d be new and he’d never… thought about it.





	

“Bull?” He rose out of the half-nap he’d been in, trying to refocus his eye on Tama. She wasn’t as close as he’d thought, sitting over at her vanity and tugging a brush through her hair hard enough to yank it all out. At some point she’d got up and rinsed off, and was sitting around in one of those fancy tie-up robes she liked. He hauled himself up to face her. “I have something stupid to ask.”

“No stupid questions here,” he assured her, rolling to sit up properly. He’d chucked his brace somewhere— eyepatch was still on but he wasn’t real keen on taking it off— but had apparently put on pants before knocking out for the evening.

“Do you know how to braid?” Well that accounted for all the knots in her hair. He gestured her over and away from the mirror, and she had the foresight to bring the brush.

“I do, actually. Went on an investigation with another Ben-Hassrath with long hair— couldn’t reach around their horns, so they taught me how to do it so their hair stayed out of their eyes. Skinner would just chop it all off if one of us didn’t come at her once in awhile too,” he said, trying to carefully work out the mess she made.

“I usually get one of the servants to help me, but he doesn’t come when you’re up here.” She fidgeted a little, leaning back a bit too far. He scooted her forward and she wrinkled her nose.

“Boyfriend on the side?” he teased, and she laughed.

“Which side? You take up most of the bed.” He snorted as he separated the pieces of hair to braid. He liked her hair, like he liked everything else about her— Tama was a whole experience packed down into a person, and he hadn’t really expected himself to enjoy this arrangement so much. He liked sex and all, but he couldn’t just fuck a relationship into being good. They had a… dynamic. “Did you ever wear your hair long?” she asked.

“Yeah, but I was lazy. Just tied it back and went on my way.” He’d cut it all off before moving south— it’d meant something to him back then, but now it was mostly convenience. “Beard too,” he added. It was harder to stay dedicated to keeping the beard off, honestly. The only thing stopping him was concern that he’d look odd with a beard and no hair.

“Tease,” she accused, turning her head a bit to look at him. He straightened her out, grinning at the snotty kind of look she tried to give him. All these power dynamics and he still figured he’d be real bored if she ever decided to actually _listen_ to him when he told her to do something. “Although I admit, I am a fan of the stubble.”

“Who isn’t?” he asked, frowning as he tried to reach for a strand with his shortened fingers. “Krem did me a favour with the whole eye thing. Between the stubble and the patch you really gotta beat people off— pun intended.” He tied off the braid and dropped it so she could stretch, because the real struggle was trying to keep the Herald of Andraste still for four seconds.

“Is that why I’ve never seen you without it?” she asked, not actually moving. It was how he knew she _meant_ something, because if she was just flirting or dicking around then she would have crawled up on him. That it was about his eyepatch kind of threw him off, because everyone else avoided it entirely like he was the only one who didn’t know he was missing an eye. The only other one to bring it up was Vivienne, and that was for colour-coordination purposes.

“What, you wanna see me without the patch on?” he asked.

“Would it bother you?” She still wasn’t looking at him, but tracing patterns on his ankle lightly with her finger. He leaned back against the headboard, giving it a bit of a think because… well, no one really requested _patch-off._ It’d be new and he’d never… thought about it. After losing the eye he’d just shrugged and moved forward _._ It wasn’t really a Qunari thing to linger on injuries long— it fucked a few people up, but he’d always just... walked it off. Never really considered that he might be fucked up about one of this many body-changing injuries.

“Dunno. One way to find out,” he said, reaching back for the tie that kept it all anchored on his horn. She turned, but she didn’t look eager.

“Bull if you think it’ll upset you—”

“I don’t,” he said, feeling actually pretty confident about it. “It’s a… Qunari thing, all right? You still want me to take it off?” he asked. It occurred to him that she might be weirded out by seeing the empty socket, which… did make him pause a little. It was just… _frustrating_ trying to decide on how she would react. Hand him some midwife from Mabari-Butt, Ferelden and he’d give you her life story, but with Tama she just… made things hard to pin down.

“If you want,” she said, settling herself down in between his legs. She was all sweeping verticals— her nose, her hair, her face, her back— and it made her interesting to look at, even if he couldn’t do his damn job and get a read on her in any useful way (all well and good to report back to Qunandar that he couldn’t tell you shit about the Inquisitor’s biases, but she liked getting her ears nibbled on).

He took off the patch because, why not? She tilted her head thoughtfully, her eyes taking their sweet time moving around his face and her hand reaching out to touch about as far as his cheekbone before stopping. “What’s the verdict, boss?” he asked, comforted by the fact that she still seemed to want to touch him.

“Same as always. You are perfect.” She was so _confident_ about that, just dropping it there like it wasn’t something borderline… intimate. More intimate than the sex they’d had earlier, or the way she chose to finally just crawl up on him and stretch like a cat in the sun.

The way that he liked it no matter how… intimate it was.

**Author's Note:**

> all right [my writing blog is here](http://nebulaad.tumblr.com) and okay have yall ever thought about how Iron Bull's relationship with the Qun was at least partially convenience for him because it provided him with an excuse to suppress his trauma rather than actually dealing with it? Like how the Qun treats and discusses PTSD ("soul sickness" which could either be a clear demonstration of the Qun's disdain for incapacitating mental illnesses or just straight up Bioware assigning a romantic name to something that probably shouldn't have one) he just kind of dealt with it through giving himself up to be "cured" through mind-breaking pseudo-torture and then when that fell through he just. Worked _harder_ which seems like a poor way of dealing with things? Not to mention the Cole banter of the moment he loses his eyes where he's just like "okay that's a thing now" like Bull you just violently lost half of your sight and we're getting hit with.... "k whatevs".
> 
> Anyway that's what this fic is about. Bull aggressively avoiding confronting his traumatic injuries because they Fucked Him Up a little but the Qun provided him adequate tools to suppress any and all negative reactions so he was like "cool it's handled" but it very much wasn't. Even this fic doesn't really knitty gritty it but I mean.


End file.
